In recent times, it has become known to coextrude a strand of sausage material which has an inner core of meat emulsion having an outer surface material that can be coagulated to provide an encasement for the strand. The coagulation normally includes subjecting the extruded strand to a brine solution. The brine is applied immediately after the strand is extruded.
The brine is sometimes sprayed onto the sausage strand as the strand is moved along an elongated conveyor which is comprised of a plurality of pivotally interconnected links that have a supporting surface that can retain some of the sprayed brine for treating the sausage strand. One shortcoming of this process is that there is no way to easily remove the residual brine on the sausage strand after the brine treatment has concluded.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a conveyor for coagulating the outer surface of a sausage strand discharged from a sausage extruding machine wherein the sausage strand will be rinsed with fresh water after it leaves the conveyor to a second conveyor which will not retain any residual fluid.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.